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Comment by possibilistic | Hacker News Reader

I don't really buy this. There's simply no way that messing with the NO pathway can prevent DNA degradation resulting from radiation exposure. I'm not familiar with irradiation units and how they correlate to DNA damage, but all amounts are harmful to the molecule. Ionizing radiation damage can be fixed via repair pathways, but it's simply a function of probability as to when this machinery fails in a critical location.

The paper might be interesting to read, though, especially if it got cited. As always, news articles tend to inflate claims and miss the point entirely.

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I didn't get the impression that the article was implying that DNA damage and other stochastic effects are prevented, but that maybe the initial effects of radiation poisoning are avoided, and that (maybe because of this) cells are more able to repair themselves.

That said, I can't disagree with your last point - it's probably at least a little embellished.

Don't presume that it's just DNA degradation per se that gives rise to tumorigenic cells. (Mis)repair can be a key cause of cancer.

Look to nature surviving so well in Chernobyl?

Nature is doing so well around Chernobyl because of the lack of humans. I don't have a reference to hand but I beleive that the birds in the area have a high rate of genetic defects and low reproductive success. That fact that the environment seems to be doing well is a statement of how much impact humans have on their surroundings.

Yes, I remember that one: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-chernobyl-birds-smaller-...

Rereading it, it seems that the effects seen on the birds are seen in humans too, but at higher contamination levels.

Nature adapts - it might counter with more births and shorter life spans, or whatever. Just because cockroaches prosper doesn't mean humans would.

I doubt "nature" and humans utilize the same repair processes. There are also a wide variety of reproduction strategies that minimize the requirement for long lasting information integrity in any single individual.

It'd be incredibly interesting to look for changes in the repair mechanisms of these organisms--especially the promoters. I bet they're being expressed at ridiculously high levels.

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